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Friday, July 13, 2018

Will pigs be the next reservoir for Ebola?

As some may recall, in 2014 I wrote a blog
about Ebola and the outbreak in Guinea.It was a story, if you will, of how my passion and interest in infection
prevention came to be.If you happen to
read the blog, you’ll see that a reader took my interest in infection prevention
and what was happening as not showing respect and having “something wrong
with me.”

Ebola is an interest
of mine.I do find it fascinating.It’s history.Our attempts to contain the multitude of outbreaks that have occurred
and our inability to stop these outbreaks from happening.I read any article that comes across my desk
that talks about Ebola and yes, I keep tabs on any outbreaks that are currently
happening.You can imagine my interest
in coming across an article that indicated there was some evidence that pigs
might be able to host the Ebola virus.We
know that viruses can't survive in the environment, and in most cases once the
dust has settled and an outbreak investigation has wrapped up, we know that some
type of animal must be serving as a "reservoir".When it comes to Ebola, the evidence so far points
to fruit bats as the guilty party, but gorillas, chimpanzees, and even antelope
may also play a role.

If pigs were to be
found to be involved in spreading Ebola, this could be
particularly worrisome.It would mean
that a common animal, one used as livestock, one that some may even live with, could be spreading Ebola. The research team from the article collected blood
samples from 400 pigs in regions of Sierra Leone that had reported human cases
of the Ebola virus.Of the 400 pigs tested,
three had antibodies in their blood that reacted to Ebola virus proteins
meaning that these animals had been infected by the virus at some point and
mounted an immune response.The
researchers found that these antibodies were not protective
when challenged to the Ebola virus.

Does this mean that
pigs can or will spread Ebola?This
study shows that pigs can be infected with a type of Ebola virus, perhaps not
the one causing the large West African epidemic, but that doesn’t mean it’s not
a future possibility.